IT workers at City institutions have been told they must come to work on April 1 and 2, when thousands of protestors are expected in the Square Mile to mark the G20 meeting of leaders in London.
Authorities fear the protests will turn violent, and many City workers have been ordered to stay at home. But staff maintaining the …

Yoghurt knitters beware!

...join 'em

Please don't attack the city.

My wife works there, and without her salary we'd have to take our children out of private school.

The education you people put up with for your children is your choice but you really shouldn't be ruining other people's chances in life. Look at where you've all ended up. Do you really want this for your kids?

Yay, protesters...

Define a "banker"

Marvelous, all we needed. Let's see how many lower level employees will get it in the face because a gaggle of angry plebs can't make the distinction between those _actually_ responsible and the other 90% of FS employees.

Easy...

Numbnuts

Yeah protesters! Go for it!

Clearly the way to fix the currently knackered economy and protest against Government debt, job losses, increased taxes and the bourgoise banking system is to try and bring the city to a standstill for a couple of days!

Never mind that most of the people you'll be harrassing are ordinary banking & IT drones, who don't get paid loads, had no part in those decisions, and are all worried about thier jobs. Let's put Britain back together by interrrupting the infrastructure of the city and the banking system!

Mufti?

My lot (Moorgate based) have decreed that we should travel "discretely", coming in "casual clothing", "do not display your security cards" and bringing packed lunches so that we don't have to go outside for food.

So, there's no chance any of us might get spotted marching through the front door of a building with "XXXXXXXX Bank" above the door in 10 foot high letters?

Anyway, I don't actually mind too much. During the last protests, I pitched up for work, got as far as the front door before being called and told to sneak home to avoid any trouble, turned round and walked out straight into the middle of it where I was offered free beer (yes please) and a huge spliff (not my scene, but I appreciate the spirit of generosity). Spent most of the day drinking and sunbathing with them and had a great day. And I still got paid!

It's much too dangerous

They should not be asking them to come in, it's far too dangerous. If they are dressed casually so as not to stand out from the demonstrators there is a very strong chance that they will be attacked and beaten up. By the police.

Sacrifice the IT lot

that's hilarious. So, just how essential do IT folk feel in the city? Expendable, moi?

Even Zelda would reclaim her own, what a bunch of spineless muppets.

Well the time of the hooded man is upon us, there will be many Spartacai before this is all over, and anarchist ideals are the right ones, a society without hierarchy is correct, that's been plain to see throughout time.

Meritocracy is the route, and that's probably where the anarchists are gaining support, they have the best of the best there, whereas capitalism engenders nepotism, meaning sycophants rise in power. Sycophants cannot keep power though, they don't train or organise just suck on the silver spoon shoved in their extremist rectums, relying on little slips of paper to hang onto control.

Inaccurate attribution - the protest is not 'organised' on Indymedia UK

Ive been following the G20 protests and the call for the LSE protest came from a group calling themselves "Bristol Dissent".

An email from them is featured on a host of websites including Bristol Indymedia and many others.

It would be right to say "published on Indymedia UK" and indeed on many other websites, but not "organised on", if anything you should say "organised by Bristol Dissent". I think that's an important distinction, especially given the recent interest by police in anyone who runs a box that have clients mirroring the Indymedia UK website.

Bah

Quite annoying how the government is getting away with demonising protesters like this.

What do they expect people to do when they implode the economy? Sit around and take it? Thank them? Only a matter of days before they wheel out Jacqui Smith to reassure everyone that normal people think the government is doing a great job and anyone who thinks different should be reported to the police.

Propaganda

What crap.

I've been to one of these - the FTAA meeting in Quebec City in 2001. It wasn't especially violent, protest organizers did a lot of education beforehand. Most of the violence that did occur was rubber and plastic bullets, and teargas. These things were used by the state not the protesters.

It will be interesting, but sad, to see.

Just how many people the government allow to be killed in the next few weeks. Wth the global summit they'll be able to tip some muslimaniac fuckwits off about good targets to get the population worked up.

IT bods - bunch of utter pussies

Go on, stay away you bunch of scare-de-cats - nothing much is going to happen anyway. Plus if you can't stand the heat then maybe you should stay away from the kitchen of global finance, in other words not work there. Sure, you may not be the bankers, but you're making their work possible.

Oh god how I love the sound of snivveling IT folk cowering under the desk at the first thought of any possible trouble in that big scary place called the real world, yes that place where the sunlight and all those real people are. You might even get shouted at!

Fear them - fear the terrists

Hey all you hard working good people ! Be careful ! Because there are many bad people, terrorists, who will protest. If they are protesting, you should fear them, because they are terrorists. All protesters are terrorists.

This is why we oh-so-discreetly told every employer in London to tell their staff just what a threat they are under. The jobless terrorist protesters are threatening you on the street, so you must be careful, and keep coming to work and paying your taxes and not protesting because you are not like them. You are not a terrorist. Are you?

This is why we have to photograph them, video them, search their pockets, question them, arrest them, keep them at bay with riot shields and batons, blind them with tear gas (so they can't take aim at you), detain them without charge for 28 days. And take them away to a far away land so you are all safe in London. And we'll ask them questions, encourage them to talk through any means possible because they know, they have a plan, and we just need to get them to tell us. To keep you all safe.

Anarchist Infultrators

At the last violent city protest (2000 - I think), where security guards prevented protesters from entering buildings by ingeniously locking the doors, the anarchist groups claimed to have a new tactic of infiltrating the banks by getting jobs, and then to open it up from the inside at the next event.

What has happened to these infiltrators? Are they still there, and come Wednesday will reveal to their colleagues : "For the last last 9 years I have been helping to move billions of pounds around the world, but AHA! I am really an anti-globalisation activist and will now let my mates in and trash the office" ? Or have some gone native, found out they had a talent for it and will be watching the event from their corner office?

3) Taking some completely meaningless quote and using it for all sorts of sarcastic, snotty, snide comments about what The Protesters want and are doing is just pointless. This is like reading the Daily Mail forums!